Wednesday, October 7, 2009

If I was a beetle and was looking for a romantic spot to procreate, I would be totally easily woo'd nestled in a bouquet of goldenrod. The top pic was their courtship I believe, a sort of chilling on top each other before actually doing what they came together for. It would seem the smaller insect is the male, who is on top and the female on the bottom - since you can see in the pic below, that the one on top does the inserting of buggie magic - if fact I could see when they pulled apart again there was a little bit of clear goo. Neato!Can anyone name these lovers and share what their ecological purpose might be?

4 comments:

Dude, you are on a role! Interestingly enouhg, this is the locust borer and there are alot of downed locust trees here- and alot of goldenrod.For those curious here is a little info from the link above...

"Locust borer larvae tunnel into a tree's trunk and branches, weakening the tree and making it susceptible to wind breakage. The damage from borer tunneling and wind breakage often results in deformed trees or clumps of sprout growth.

Habitat and Life Cycle: The brightly colored adults appear when goldenrod (Solidago sp.) is in bloom, generally mid-August through October here in the midwest. Females start laying eggs in the early afternoon and continue until dusk, August - October. Eggs are laid under the bark, around pruning wounds and wind breakage and in cracks in the bark - rarely where they can be easily detected. About a week later, the eggs hatch and small white larvae bore into the inner bark, where they make a small hibernation cell and overwinter. In the spring, the larvae bore into the woody part of the tree, eventually enlarging their tunnels until they are 3-4 inches long and 1/4 inch in diameter. By mid-July, most of the larvae begin the pupal stage, which lasts about 2 weeks. The mature adult beetles emerge through the holes made by the larvae. "